Florist News

Thankyou, this is such a friendly site, thankyou so much for all your replies.

I have been into florists in my immediate area, sent mails, and wrote letter's etc... I am a bit shy, so I guess I need to visit a few more and pluck up the courage.

It does seem that everyone is looking here though, as they tell me lots of people have been asking for jobs.

I really wouldn't mind if I washed up all day either, I just want to get the feel for it all.

Belinda

Here's a question i'd like to put to the younger ones out there. Those of you who are relatively new to floristry. Experience is not necessary to answer this question, just ambition.
As you've probably gathered, i'm in the process of selling my business and it would be interesting to know what people are looking for when evaluating a going concern. So for the purpose of this exercise, forget about the money, pretend that someone has offered to finance it. What sort of things would you rate as important, what sort of things would put you off. Basically just an analysis of a 'virtual' business or in a sense, how would you describe your 'ideal' business.

Belinda I wonder if you offered to work on Saturday's for free would you get your foot in the door sometimes this will work and when they hav e you for a while they can see you as an asset and then maybe take you on but unfortunately a lot of shops don't have the need for an extra pair of hands or the money to take on extra staff

Fly2hi in an ideal world I would like to be able to swan about and watch the work being done and reap in the profits at the end of the week and unfortunately I feel a lot of younger people don't realise how hard it is have seen 3 young people open shops in our area all under 20 only to close after the 2nd year one couldn't handle the money and kept nothing back for the bills one didn't work hard enough nor did she want to and the other was a combination of both Problem really they didn't so their sums or research properly one of these shops has now reopened for the 3rd time with the 3rd new owner unfortunately location is the problem no footfall and street is really only shortcut to avoid main shopping areas

Something told me you'd be one of 'the younger ones' !

Keep up the hard work. It will pay dividends in the end. When my wife was at college it cost us a fortune so I do feel for you. Someone we now is now doing the same course and finds it expensive. My wife being as she is provides the flowers for her. She also helps an art student at Uni giving her samples of fabrics etc. What should happen is that the college should buy the flowers at the wholesalers for you and then charge you at cost price. As i said to my wife at the time the colleges have the answer but fail to help.

I tend to agree with you Solly. It should not be a problem for the college to organise a supply of flowers from a local wholesaler. Bearing in mind that the students are potential customers and the college knows exactly what is required in terms of volume etc. I sell quite a lot of cut flower to floristry students on courses and it has always amazed me that they need to source their flowers and sundries individually. Quite often they are asked to buy specific stems which i just don't have in stock but could easily be obtained with a bit of prior notice, not too difficult when these things are decided at the beginning of term.

fly2hi no not one of the younger ones but I like to stick my nose in and I know where students are coming from with the expense and problem of getting items I was lucky as my employer gave me my flowers and sundries and if she hadn't got it she allowed me to go to the wholesalers or she ordered item in but the tudor at the college was also very helpful and gave everyone her business/home/and moblie numbers so they could ring if they had difficulty with either flowers or sundries also giving to them at cost she now teaches at 2 colleges and still carries on same practice

What annoyed me was the college my wife went to had a shop in the floristry department and used the local wholesalers for there own flowers. The college could have put a weekly order through the shop. It was so simple to work out. This would have ensured that all students used the same flowers from the same source and nobody had that extra edge in class.

Yes I remember do an a table arrangement all but two of the class had gerbs carn and chry the other two one had anthirium and calla and the other had strelitzia and tropicals with lots of lovely expensive foliages that most of had never seen or heard of and ended up with beautiful arrangement compared to ours done with cheaper varieties